


Modern Family à la FitzSimmons

by stjarna



Series: FitzSimmons' Modern Family [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: AOS Advent, F/M, Family Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, funny fluff, prompt: family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 03:12:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16905015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna
Summary: A follow-up toMaybe some things are inevitable[strongly recommend to read that one first ;) ]





	Modern Family à la FitzSimmons

**Author's Note:**

> Big thank you to @dilkirani for the beta.
> 
> For Locksley, whose comment on "Maybe some things are inevitable" gave me the idea for this fic.

Deke swung open the door of the Scottish cottage, dropping his bag to the floor and fanning his arms out to the side. “Ho! Ho! Ho!” he exclaimed loudly, deepening his voice and making his grand entrance.

“Hey, Uncle Deke,” Liam’s voice called from upstairs, and Deke noticed the croaking sound of a boy going through his puberty vocal change.

Deke eyed the staircase, but it didn’t seem like Liam had any intention of actually leaving his room.

“Hey, remember when I was popular,” he muttered to himself in slight disappointment, but his lips pulled into a wide smile when Jemma rounded the corner.

She spread out her arms in a welcoming hug. “Hey, you finally made it.”

“Yeah,” Deke replied, Jemma’s hair tickling his face. He pulled away, smiling apologetically. “Sorry I didn’t make it for Christmas.”

Jemma waved him off. “It’s not your fault the flight got cancelled.”

Deke shrugged. “Still—”

“You’ll make up for it now,” Jemma objected, her eyes shimmering warmly.

“Hey, I thought I heard something loud and annoying.”

Deke looked past Jemma, his lips reflexively pulling into a wide grin as he watched Fitz walk closer, his hands tucked into his pockets.

“Good to see you, too, Gramps,” Deke said pointedly, pulling Fitz into a hug.

Fitz broke the hug quickly, glancing over his shoulder before staring at Deke wide-eyed. “Shh!” he hissed through his teeth.

Deke raised his hands apologetically. “Sorry, couldn’t resist,” he whispered.

“Uncle Deke!” Peggy’s overly excited voice caused Deke to look up.

She walked up to him with quick steps, wrapping her arms around him. Deke felt his muscles tense. With each year that passed, Peggy looked more and more like his mother, and there was something equally comforting and painful about that. He thought he’d likely never get used to it.

He broke the hug, smiling shyly at Peggy. “I really wish you would stop calling me that,” he remarked quietly.

Peggy grinned back at him, with a pretend look of confusion, waving her index finger first back and forth between herself and Fitz, then Fitz and Deke, and finally Deke and herself. “Um. Father-daughter. Half-brothers. Uncle-niece. Plus, Liam calls you Uncle Deke and you never complain to him.”

“Yeah, well, he’s not—You’re—” Deke stared at her wide-eyed, racking his brain for an explanation, cursing himself for ever having suggested the whole half-brother idea to Jemma and Fitz when Peggy was born. “—older.”

Peggy ticked her head to one side, pursing her lips. “Oh, Uncle Deke.”

Her head shot around when her phone suddenly beeped somewhere in the living room. She glanced at her watch, a mysterious smile suddenly spreading across her face. “Oh, time to get going! Just going to grab my phone.”

She spun around on her heels, heading back to the living room.

Deke watched her leave, wrinkling his forehead in confusion, before focusing back on Jemma and Fitz. “What’s that all about?”

Fitz crossed his arms in front of his chest, grimacing and dropping his gaze to the floor. Jemma gave her husband a reprimanding look, before addressing Deke. “She has to pick up her boyfriend from the airport.”

Deke’s eyes widened in surprise, his index finger darting in the direction of the living room. “She has a boyfriend?”

Jemma squinted her eyes. “Well, not the first one, as you know.”

“Yes, well, sure, but—” Deke fell silent when Peggy rushed out of the living room.

She grabbed her jacket in passing, pressing a quick kiss to Jemma’s, Fitz’s and Deke’s cheeks, and flung the door open, before closing it, calling a hasty “Be back soon” over her shoulder.

“—she’s bringing him home for the holidays. That must be serious,” Deke finished the sentence he’d started earlier.

Fitz continued to stare at the ground, biting his lower lip, his eyebrows almost disappearing into his hairline.

“Yes, well,” Jemma stuttered, strangely breathless. “About her boyfriend—” She cleared her throat.

“What?” Deke furrowed his brow. “Is he some kind of—”

A high-pitched squealed caused Deke to stop as everyone’s heads turned towards the front door in alarm. But before they could rush to what sounded like Peggy in distress, the door flung open and Peggy stumbled back inside, dragging a tall figure behind herself, her face beaming.

“Guess who took an earlier flight to surprise me?” she exclaimed, overjoyed, hooking her arm around the tall man’s elbow. “Mum, Da, Deke, this is Owen.”

Slowly, the initial shock of Peggy’s scream subsided and Deke’s focus wandered from her to the man next to her. His lips parted and it felt like someone had punched the air out of his lungs. “Dad?” he breathed, staring at Owen in utter disbelief.

“What?” Owen replied, unsurprisingly confused, but Deke was unable to reply, explain or even just move—or breathe.

He felt a tug on his sleeve, and somehow his brain picked up Jemma’s panicked voice.

“You’ll have to excuse us for just a second, Owen,” Jemma sang, overly friendly and yet unable to hide a nervous tremor in her tone.

Deke stumbled sideways as Jemma dragged him along into the living room, hissing “Fitz” over her shoulder, who obliged with her request to follow them.

Once his feet had come to a standstill, Deke’s hands began gesturing wildly, towards the hallway. “She is—That is—They are—He is—”

“Yes,” Jemma growled through gritted teeth, “he is.”

“But you can’t just go and tell him that to his face,” Fitz added, fanning his arm to the side.

“Could someone explain to us what’s going on?” Peggy’s slightly irritated voice caused the three of them to spin around and face the entrance, where Peggy stood with her hands on her hips, while Owen was next to her, a shy and confused half-smile on his lips.

Fitz, Jemma, and Deke exchanged a few nervous glances, before Jemma inhaled deeply. “Well, Monkey, remember how we told you that I was once taken to the future, and your Da was left behind, and then used a cryo chamber to travel through space and time to find me?”

“Yes,” Peggy said, drawing out the word.

“But then your Mum found a way back to the present,” Fitz continued, “and then—”

“—went on a rescue mission to find you,” Peggy concluded. “Yes, I know that story. That’s the mission that Owen’s dad was on.”

“Yes, exactly. Agent Davis.” Jemma forced a wide smile, looking at Owen. “How is your father, Owen?”

“Good,” Owen replied, his brow furrowed in skepticism.

“Excellent.” Jemma’s lips were pulled unnaturally wide.

“But what does all of that have to do with whatever weird thing is going on right now?” Peggy asked, looking sternly back and forth between Jemma, Fitz and Deke.

Deke looked wide-eyed at Jemma and Fitz, until he noticed one corner of Fitz’s mouth tick up, while Jemma shrugged barely noticeably. Deke cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, you see. I—I’m not actually your dad’s half-brother.”

Peggy wrinkled her forehead. “What?”

Deke scratched his neck below the ear. “I—I came back with Jemma from the future.”

“Seriously?” Owen muttered in a mix of surprise and excited curiosity.

Deke bobbed his head in confirmation “Yes, but—but it turned out that I wasn’t just anyone.” He let out a little cough, trying to cope with his dry throat. “I was, in fact—” He gestured with his thumb to the side at Jemma and Fitz, “—their grandson.”

Peggy raised her eyebrows. “What? You’re their grand—” She inhaled a sharp breath, her mouth gaping ajar and her eyes the size of saucers. Deke saw the exact moment her brain put two and two together. “Oh. My. God!” she screamed.

Owen next to her had turned white like a sheet and looked like he would drop to the ground any moment now. “He called me ‘Dad,’” he stammered barely audibly, his head slowly turning towards Peggy. “He called—he called—Oh boy.”

“Hey, what’s the ruckus?” Liam suddenly croaked from the hallway, causing everyone’s heads to shoot in his direction. “Did I miss something?”

Owen and Peggy just stared at him in silent shock, their lips parted.

“Are they okay?” Liam asked his parents, his voice full of worry.

Jemma dropped her shoulders. “Why don’t we all sit down? I’ll make some tea. This could take a while.”


End file.
